This disclosure relates to the general field of distillation, and more specifically toward a high efficiency distillation head and methods of use. The distillation head may be used for efficient fractional distillation of high boiling point compounds, and includes a lower insulated chamber (i.e., a jacket or a vacuum jacket) surrounding or wrapped around a fractionating column (also called a path, inner tube, fractionating column, or fractionating tube) and an upper insulated chamber (i.e., a jacket or vacuum jacket) surrounding a condenser. The lower insulated chamber may also feature a vacuum chamber having silvering (mirroring) inside of the vacuum chamber to increase thermal and infrared heat retention in the fractionating column within the lower insulated chamber, while leaving the upper insulated chamber un-silvered (not mirrored) to allow for a temperature differential between the condenser in the upper chamber and the fractionating column in the lower chamber for improved (more efficient) condensation of fractionated vapors. An exit path, having a cross sectional area that is greater than or substantially equal to the cross section of the fractionating column, is located vertically within the distillation head at or below the top of the fractionating column.
Distillation systems, specifically fractional distillation systems, separate mixtures into their component parts, or fractions, by heating the mixtures to a temperature that causes one or more fractions to vaporize. The heated vapors ascend through a fractionating column, some of which condense and revaporize along a temperature gradient. In existing systems, vapor exits through a small exit hole or restriction in the column for condensation as the vapor passes out of the fractionating column. However, the small exit hole slows throughput and provides a small condensation surface area for collecting the distillate.
Current designs also utilize a coolant jacket for the upper condenser portion, in addition to a long or extended fractionating column that extends into the upper condenser. Such a design is not ideal because utilizing coolant rather than a vacuum chamber requires at least one additional mechanical accessory (and creates additional complexity), and it also decreases the efficiency of the distillation head. The longer the fractionating column in these designs, the more energy required to force the vapors to exit the top of the condenser (because there is no direct insulation around the fractionating column).
Thus there has existed a long-felt need for an improved, efficient distillation head and fractionating column to distill compounds, including high boiling point compounds, while minimizing the use of heat, energy, and/or coolant. One of the benefits of the present high efficiency design is that the fractionating column is shortened and the lower insulated chamber has greatly increased thermal retention; thus, the disclosed device requires significantly less heat to allow fractionated vapors to exit the shortened column to the upper condenser.